The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
IDs: Queer, Sapphic, Bisexual, Asian, Black, Nonbinary, Mentally Ill
Author IDs: Black
CWs: Intimate partner violence and abuse, addiction, murder, violence, mention of suicide
Johnson’s novel tells the story of Cara, a “traverser.” In Cara’s world, humans have discovered the existence of parallel universes, and how to travel between these universes. However, one can only “traverse” between worlds if the other you, the version of you on that world, is dead. There are 380 known versions of Earth. Cara is dead on 372 of them, which makes her an excellent “traverser.” Cara comes from Ashtown, the town surrounding the walled city of Wiley City. As a “traverser,” Cara is able to move into Wiley City, but she is not considered a citizen, and therefore does not get citizen rights. So much of the novel explores Cara’s traversing not just through other universes, but also through her shifting class status. When she is in Wiley City, she is seen as suspicious and lesser-than. She has to continually prove her worth in order to keep her place in the city. Yet, when she goes home to Ashtown, she is seen as snobby, no longer understanding the hardships of the desert. Johnson’s parallel universes examine and literalize the ways that a change in circumstances can alter a person's path in life, and what it means to gain and lose privilege according to such changes.
As we discover more about Cara’s past, and the other Caras' pasts, these examinations of class and privilege sharpen. We learn that Cara was previously in a relationship with the leader of Ashtown, a blood dictator called Nik Nik. He was verbally and physically abusive to Cara, and she has PTSD from this, as well as from other traumas she experienced while growing up in Ashtown. Through Cara’s traversing, we see how these traumas and their aftereffects differ in different realities, and how Cara’s ability to traverse between and observe them impacts her healing.
Traversing itself also functions, in some ways, as a disability. While some say it is a privilege to be able to traverse, that doesn’t change the fact that you (or at least, a version of you) must die in order to do it. Traversing also has long-lasting physical effects on the body. This becomes particularly harrowing for Cara during a “bad trip,” where her movement through universes doesn’t quite go as planned. From this, she experiences intense trauma, including broken bones, crushed organs, and permanent scarring all over her body. Throughout the novel, Cara navigates both her traversions through Ashtown and Wiley City and her traversions through different versions of her reality. These traversions provide her space to explore and examine her own privilege, trauma, and class status, and how much circumstances can change that. Johnson’s novel challenges us to think about privilege and class through this layered approach, utilizing the speculative in order to question how we structure equity in the now.
Discussion Questions
1. How does Cara’s relationship with her body change throughout the novel?
2. How does traversing allow Cara to better understand the malleability of her privilege and identity within Wiley City & Ashtown?
3. How does power function in the novel? How does traversing alter Cara’s relationship to power?